Martin Jacobson

Biography

Martin Jacobson deconstructs the conventions of landscape painting by appropriating clichéd motifs of the genre, such as sunsets, moonlight, roads, mountains, water, and sky. “I look for archetypal motifs and themes … that somehow reflect collective dreams … images with a potential to describe the fundamental conditions of our existence,” he says. He derives his images from sources as varied as postcards of art historical images, newspapers, and books from primarily the late 19th century, a period he calls “modernism’s childhood.” Jacobson paints using unnaturally bright colors that distance his works from historically similar paintings that attempt to accurately represent nature.